I bought used heddles on ebay.  While the purchased heddle length fits the harness exactly as the originals, the eyes don't match exactly.  I've flipped them and they still are not exact.  There is an overlap, where the eyes of the purchased and the originals match, but the purchased heddle eyes fall slightly above the originals.  Will it affect my weaving?  I understand about directional twist, but I wonder if I will be sorry to warp the loom only to find out I have an issue because the threads the heddles are not exactly lined up.  Thanks for any input!

Comments

Sun, 02/02/2014 - 00:49

SallyE (not verified)

Are you talking about texsolve or metal heddles?  If metal, what type?

Some measurements would help also  - how much different are they and in which direction - up or down?

What type of loom are you using?   CM /CB or jack?

 

 

Sun, 02/02/2014 - 01:07

jca

Flat steel metal heddles, the origianl eyes are 1/2 inch, the new ones 3/8 inch. They line up at the top, the new heddles are a bit shorter than the originals.  The loom is a 4 shaft Harrisville Design.  Thanks for your help!

Sun, 02/02/2014 - 14:42

debmcclintock

Put a small amount on your loom and see if it affects your weaving shed. The relationship of the heddle shafts and the treading might minimize the difference. Or it could take you to despair. You need to physically try it. It is a small enough difference that it might not matter.
Sun, 02/02/2014 - 14:49

ReedGuy

As long as the centre of the eyes match and not a wide variance you should be fine . Put the longer eyes on the back shafts, don't mix them. Let the shafts lie at rest and see that a piece of yarn passes through the centre of the eyes. The trouble will be that the shed will not be even if they are mix mashed or if the eyes are way off centre from the rest. On some looms you can compensate with the tie-up cords when you have longer eyes.

Sun, 02/02/2014 - 14:52

SallyE (not verified)

I'm thinking that small a difference won't matter, but you won't know until you try.   Since you are using a Jack loom, the warp should sit at the bottom of the reed.   So check that the new heddles aren't causing it to sit a little bit up.   If that happens you might catch the wrong threads as you throw the shuttle.

The other thing you could consider would be to put all of these new heddles on one shaft.  That way you can adjust the height of that shaft to match the others. 

Sun, 02/02/2014 - 16:34

Sara von Tresckow

What about putting only one type of heddle on eacy shaft so the eyes line up on the shafts. If there is then any issue with eye height, the shaft can be adjusted slightly to compensate.

Sun, 02/02/2014 - 22:48

Michael White

I take issue with the center of the eye. On a jack loom the bottom of the heddle is what counts. The bottom is what lifts the warp. Now if the warp is not being lifted off of the bottom of the reed your 1/8 of an inch may not give you any problems.  

Michael

Mon, 02/03/2014 - 03:25

ReedGuy

Being as this is supposedly a jack loom (I did not see this in the first post) you are right about the lifting of course. However, it is an issue if for instance some of the heddles lift the warp 1 inch and others on the same shaft lift them 4. Or if all the ebay heddles are on an in between shaft and the originals are on the front and back. Then you have a possible  problem with skips from an uneven shed unless udjustments can be made to compensate. Some looms involve more fiddling then others.

Centering the eyes of the heddles is my first check to see if I want to get involved trying to make it work. If not I would pass. Just the way I look at it.

Tue, 02/04/2014 - 02:34

jca

It is so nice to get this kind of help just by putting it out there.  I'm going to try the tips offered and see how it goes.  

Thanks again,'jca